The present invention relates to fluid-conducting assemblies such as an assembly of a pair of pipes connected to each other in such way that at least one of these pipes is capable of at least limited turning movement with respect to the other of the pipes, while at the same time fluid can flow continuously through the pipes.
The presently known structure for providing such connections between pipes suffers from several drawbacks. Thus, it is conventional, for example, to interconnect a pair of pipes by a suitable bellows or the like while a hinge assembly is fixed to the pipes at the exterior thereof and exterior of the bellows to enable at least one of the pipes to turn with respect to the other. One of the drawbacks inherent in such a construction resides in the fact that the exterior pipe-connecting structure requires a certain amount of space to be available at the exterior of the pipe, so that such conventional constructions can only be used with difficulty in situations where the pipe can be situated only in a limited space. A further and more important drawback of such conventional constructions resides in the fact that the exterior pipe-connecting structure is exposed to the ambient atmosphere creating an undesirable temperature differential between the pipe-connecting structure and the pipes themselves when the fluid which flows therethrough is at a temperature which is substantially different from the ambient temperature. For example, where the pipes are used for conveying a fluid at a temperature substantially higher than the ambient temperature, the exterior pipe-connecting structure will act in the same way as cooling fins, resulting not only in an undesirable reduction in the temperature of the fluid itself but also in the creation of undesirable stresses in the pipes and in the pipe-connecting structure. Yet another drawback encountered with conventional constructions of the above type resides in the fact that the bellows which interconnects the pipes has a length substantially corresponding to the distance between the pipes, so that an internal sleeve is required for properly conducting the fluid through the pipes. Also, if repair or maintenance operations require procedures such as, for example, replacing the bellows, it is necessary first to remove the outer pipe-connecting structure.